Masvingo man stopped from hanging self, dies from pesticide ingested earlier

Bikita(Masvingo Star-New Ziana) -A man from Bikita in Masvingo province was last Friday stopped from hanging himself only to die the following day from a pesticide that he had taken thinking that he had killed his wife after striking her several times with an axe, accusing her of infidelity.

Masvingo provincial police spokesperson chief inspector Charity Mazula confirmed that Amos Matombo of Mukomondera village, chief Mukanganwi in Bikita, died at Silveira Mission Hospital last Saturday from ingesting a pesticide a day after one of his sisters-in-law had stopped him from hanging himself.

Matombo had around 8 pm on Friday attacked and tried to strangle his wife Tracy Takawandirwa (27) accusing her of cheating on him with an unidentified man.

Takawandirwa managed to fight Matombo off after which he armed himself with an axe and struck her several times on the head until she became unconscious.

Thinking that Takawandirwa was dead, Matombo took the axe and rushed to one of his brother’s homesteads where he tried to hang himself with a shoe lace on a roof beam in the kitchen hut.

The couple’s seven-year-old son who witnessed the attack on his mother rushed and informed neighbours, Ronia Mberikwazvo, (29), Jevas Tawandirwa, (38), and another man only identified as Langton who rushed to Tracy’s aid and took her to Silveira Mission Hospital where she is recovering.

Wife to Matombo’s brother, Jessica Mupezemu managed to stop him from hanging himself and rushed him to Bikita Rural District Hospital from where he was transferred to Silveira Mission Hospital.

At Silveira Mission Hospital it was then discovered that Matombo had in addition to trying to hang himself, taken a pesticide from which he eventually succumbed around midnight on Saturday.

Chief inspector Mazula urged members of the public to seek counseling from community elders, traditional and religious leaders when encountered with social problems.

New Ziana